PRES­tige Car­ni­val 2026, themed IS­SHŌ, con­tin­ues its tra­di­tion of de­liv­er­ing a pre­mi­um, all-in­clu­sive Car­ni­val ex­pe­ri­ence while gen­er­at­ing vi­tal fund­ing for up­grades at Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege San Fer­nan­do.

In­spired by the Japan­ese phrase is­shō ni ichi­do, mean­ing “once in a life­time”, IS­SHŌ re­flects the event’s fo­cus on shared ex­pe­ri­ence, uni­ty and mo­ments that can­not be repli­cat­ed.

Chair­man of the Pres­tige Past Stu­dents Foun­da­tion, Ains­ley Welch, said PRES­tige has evolved be­yond en­ter­tain­ment, be­com­ing a crit­i­cal fundrais­ing plat­form that sup­ports the school’s on­go­ing de­vel­op­ment.

“Year af­ter year, we aim to de­liv­er an ex­pe­ri­ence our pa­trons love, while en­sur­ing the funds raised are rein­vest­ed in the growth of Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege,” Welch said.

Pro­ceeds from PRES­tige Car­ni­val 2026 will sup­port a range of aca­d­e­m­ic, in­fra­struc­tur­al and sport­ing up­grades. These in­clude class­room en­hance­ments, lab­o­ra­to­ry ren­o­va­tions and the pro­vi­sion of mod­ern lab equip­ment, re­fur­bish­ment of the au­di­to­ri­um, im­prove­ments to the union hall grounds, and up­grades to the bas­ket­ball court.

Welch not­ed that pre­vi­ous PRES­tige events have al­ready con­tributed to up­grades to ten­nis and crick­et fa­cil­i­ties, smart class­rooms and lab­o­ra­to­ry im­prove­ments, en­abling the school to steadi­ly en­hance its phys­i­cal plant.

“When we make the mon­ey, 85 per cent is hand­ed over to the Past Pupils As­so­ci­a­tion,” he ex­plained. “They work close­ly with the school’s ad­min­is­tra­tion to iden­ti­fy and ex­e­cute the projects that are most need­ed.”

The event it­self has con­tin­ued to evolve in re­sponse to pa­tron feed­back and re­search, with or­gan­is­ers re­fin­ing lay­out, dé­cor, food ser­vice, traf­fic flow and safe­ty mea­sures to el­e­vate the over­all ex­pe­ri­ence.

This year’s event will be host­ed at Skin­ner Park, San Fer­nan­do—a move Welch said cre­ates new op­por­tu­ni­ties to fur­ther en­hance pa­tron com­fort and im­mer­sion.

“Skin­ner Park gives us the space and flex­i­bil­i­ty to cre­ate a more im­mer­sive ex­pe­ri­ence,” he said. “From im­proved crowd flow and ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty to ex­pand­ed lay­out and dé­cor pos­si­bil­i­ties, the venue al­lows us to de­liv­er the all-in­clu­sive ex­pe­ri­ence our pa­trons ex­pect, and in many ways, take it to an­oth­er lev­el.”

En­ter­tain­ment re­mains a cor­ner­stone of the PRES­tige brand, with a line­up fea­tur­ing lead­ing lo­cal acts, DJs and Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege alum­ni per­form­ers, re­in­forc­ing the strong con­nec­tion be­tween the event and the school com­mu­ni­ty.

Be­yond in­fra­struc­ture, Welch said PRES­tige funds al­so sup­port op­er­a­tional needs at the school, in­clud­ing tem­po­rary teach­ing arrange­ments when de­lays oc­cur in re­plac­ing staff.

“Those in­ter­ven­tions en­sure the boys con­tin­ue to learn with­out in­ter­rup­tion,” he said.

As PRES­tige Car­ni­val 2026 ap­proach­es, or­gan­is­ers say the event’s pur­pose re­mains clear: to cre­ate a once-in-a-life­time Car­ni­val ex­pe­ri­ence while mak­ing a mean­ing­ful in­vest­ment in the fu­ture of Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege San Fer­nan­do.